Performance Bias & Attribution Bias

Performance Bias

Think about the process you use right now to evaluate your team’s performance or assess candidates for open roles in your team right now. Is it crystal clear how to make an assessment and record relevant information? When the structure for evaluating performance contains ambiguity, we are more likely to rely on gender, race and other stereotypes to make decisions.

Attribution Bias

We tend to overestimate men’s performance and underestimate women’s performance. In a similar way, we tend to overestimate white people’s performance and underestimate Black people and other people of color’s performance at work, too. An experiment reported by the BBC showed that a job seeker with an English name, Adam Henton, was offered three times the number of interviews than an applicant with a Muslim name, Mohamed Allam. Despite the CVs detailing the same level of qualifications and experience.

Activities for Your Team

  • Think about the last role you hired. For each stage of candidate review from resume screening to interviews, who defined the assessment criteria? How was the data collected and compared?
  • Think about the last round of performance reviews. What adjectives were used to describe your performance? Were they detailed, specific and action-oriented? Were any evaluations vague or lacking in tangible suggestions for improvement?
  • Think about the last team meeting. Divide speakers’ contributions into percentages of total speaking time. Who spoke for the majority of the meeting? What is their role and identity? Who felt like they were interrupted?
  • Think about your last 1:1. Were you the line manager or direct report? Do you and your line manager/direct report share the same gender? Race? How often did you interrupt, or were you interrupted?

New Habits to Make a Difference

  • Design rigorous documentation for each person participating in a recruitment or performance review process to eliminate inconsistencies and ambiguity.
  • Push for evidence to justify decisions about who to hire and how scores were assigned in performance reviews.
  • When giving team mates constructive feedback, especially if they are female, Black or another underrepresented identity, be as specific as possible, explaining what could be done differently next time to achieve better results.

 

Got a Question?

F.A.Qs

You start with the foundation training which consists of one 30 minute video, followed by 6 bite size videos. You can then do the intermediate training which is made up of 18 bite size videos. Finally, you can do the advanced training which is made up of 8 longer videos.

You can access each module from the homepage via the buttons that say foundation, intermediate and advanced.

No. All our modules are self paced so you can take as long as you like. 

You need to complete each training module and submit your google worksheet which can be found on the individual module page. Once submitted, our team will review your worksheet and issue out a certificate if you have passed. If you have passed, you will receive a graduation pack which contains a certificate, social imagery so you can show off to your colleagues and connections on LinkedIn plus some other goodies.

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You can submit your Google form worksheet via the module page.

No. Only the worksheet is reviewed and marked. 

You can use the cheat sheet to get a better understanding of the different types of biases people face in the workplace, but also IRL.

We will share an overview of how many people have enrolled and completed the course, but we will never share private information such as names, titles or email addresses.

Yes! Each module has its own worksheet which is a Google form. 

We will send you detailed instructions along with suggested social copy and imagery which can be used on LinkedIn and Instagram. This will be sent to you in an email from our team once you have passed the foundation module.

If you fail, you will have the option of submitting your worksheet again until all the answers are correct. Don’t worry, you can take the course again for free and resubmit your worksheets.

 

Please email hello@hustlecrew.co and a member of the team will get back to you within 72 hours.